Yahoo Sports Miles Johns likes potential matchups with Ricky Simon, Aiemann Zahabi after UFC on ESPN 53
LAS VEGAS – Miles Johns beat Cody Gibson with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC on ESPN 53 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Johns, who won for the fourth time in five fights.
Miles Johns def. Cody Gibson
Result: Miles Johns def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Updated records: Johns (14-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC), Gibson (19-10 MMA, 1-5 UFC)
Key stats: Johns had nearly 6.5 minutes of control time in the fight.
Johns on the fight's key moment
“The biggest surprise for me was that he was timing some of my power shots. I’m not going to lie: For my entire career, people have been telling me to take a little steam off my shots, but I’m a little bit hard-headed. So when I get out there, I do want to take people’s heads off and I expected a longer fighter. I expected him to be moving back and trying to catch me reaching and going over the top. But to my surprise, he was rolling under my shots. I didn’t expect him to be dipping under. I felt like I needed to sharpen that up.”
Johns on going the distance
“I just want to put a statement on my cardio. People have always wondered, ‘How’s his cardio?’ I came in here (on short) notice against a guy who uses pressure and breaks people and uses his cardio to break people, and I just wanted to show that I can hang with that even on two and a half weeks’ notice. If I can do that, then give me six weeks. Give me eight weeks and I can hang with any of them.”
Johns on what he wants next
“I would love to get back in here soon. I’ve said his name before. I’ve got a lot of respect for the guy. He’s a family guy. He’s a great fighter: Aiemann Zahabi. He’s on a four-fight win streak in the UFC. I was really impressed by his last fight against (Javid) Basharat. I think that’d be a great fight. We’ve been both kind of coming up together – four-fight win streak, that’s big. I’m on a three-fight win streak. Even though they say two, it’s really three.
“I think that’d be a great fight, or Ricky Simon. He’s No. 15. I think I’m about ready to get my number. So either one of those guys, or anybody else. Sean Shelby does a great job, so we’ll see.”
To hear more from Johns, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 53.
UFC on ESPN 53
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